How did you go from clueless to playing a career

[bongotastic]

I have done quite a bit of X-plane 11 civilian flights and I, can fly alright. I like engine management, I am getting better at situational awareness, and my landings are not terrible. Problem: I rarely go so far as to land. 

 

I picked the Yak-1 in BoS. Each mission ends in death so far: whether it is Flak or interceptors.  I don't seem to destroy ground nor air targets either. Streams like these of Wolfpack makes it look as lot easier than it is. I'm cool with learning, but wondering how you got from useless to good enough to play career.

 

Are people climbing the learning curve by playing quick missions and beating one mission style until it works? Are you prioritizing surviving over claims or just go ahead and die a lot until you don't? Real pilots couldn't use this approach.

 

I'll watch this to try to deal with survivability 

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by bongotastic

[unlikely_spider]

1 hour ago, bongotastic said:

Are you prioritizing surviving over claims

This exactly. Always have (and keep) the energy advantage in air to air situations, and don't go solo guns blazing over a heavily defended ground target. Be satisfied with 0 kills but a good landing.

[bongotastic]

Makes sense. In addition to the defensive flying video above, I also found one on dealing with Flak. Putting it here in case someone else in my position runs into this thread. 

 

https://youtu.be/zUch1RM0oac 

 

[Majpalmer]

Ditto. The key to running up a score is to survive for more than one sortie. 

 

I started with the career mode. I quickly learned where I mostly died, and it wasn't from enemy action. I mostly killed myself. Landing accidents were #1. Collisions were #2. Third was flak. Fourth was enemy fire (almost always because I was careless and didn't check six and keep my SA high), Fifth was friendly fire. 

 

I worked on these issues, while still flying short-lived careers. After a while I managed to land without killing myself. Then, if I thought the chance of collision was high, I'd pass on the closing shots. I also learned to keep an eye on my Comrades who often collided with me. I avoided loitering over any place with AAA (and in a swirling fight that can be your own AAA!) and if I had to pass over such a position NEVER flew a straight line. I avoided target fixation. I stopped chasing wounded EAs deep into enemy territory. 

 

And then, I started focusing on my shooting. At first, I managed one kill every maybe 10 sorties. Then it was 6, 4, now it's about 3 (keeping in mind that I've flown several sorties where we never engage. 

 

Keep this in mind! Erich Hartmann, with 352 kills, averaged 1 kill every 4 sorties! So getting one kill every 4 sorties may seem like you stink, if you compare yourself to the true virtuosos in this community who have been flying for YEARS. But if you can survive for 1400 career sorties, you'll be another Hartmann. 

 

 

[R33GZ]

Keep in mind that it's OK to let a damaged aircraft escape. If you rtb then there's a reasonable chance you'll get credit for a kill as that damaged enemy will probably auger in on the landing or approach.

 

Only other thing I'd say is, altitude is life. You can hold onto it and escape, or convert it into speed, attack and then convert it back into altitude

[bongotastic]

8 hours ago, Majpalmer said:

 

Keep this in mind! Erich Hartmann, with 352 kills, averaged 1 kill every 4 sorties! So getting one kill every 4 sorties may seem like you stink, if you compare yourself to the true virtuosos in this community who have been flying for YEARS. But if you can survive for 1400 career sorties, you'll be another Hartmann. 

 

 

This is a thought to live with. Very helpful! The game almost immediately became more enjoyable.

Edited June 16, 2022 by bongotastic
typo

[JimTM]

@bongotastic, you'll find plenty of helpful advice under "Air Combat Guides" in the IL-2 Sturmovik Resources post.

Edited June 16, 2022 by JimTM

[Lusekofte]

6 hours ago, bongotastic said:

 

This is a thought to live with. Very helpful! The game almost immediately became more enjoyable.

I can only play career with serious intension. You got to mentally be there and always stay alive as first priority. 

I miss ai friend that feels like friends. 

But to me , keeping them alive matter too. Only then I can enjoy career mode.

I find GB atmosphere regarding relating to ai to be weak. It is really my only serious complain about this. It is a plane for everyone to enjoy. But interaction to ai buddies is not there.

This is why I mostly fly coop. 

This game is at is best when flying with friends against ai and do a ordered mission. AI is deadly if you do not spot them, they come in zoom and boom like a pro in mp

Edited June 16, 2022 by LuseKofte

[bongotastic]

23 minutes ago, JimTM said:

@bongotastic, you'll find plenty of helpful advice under "Air Combat Guides" in the IL-2 Sturmovik Resources post.

 

Whoa, very nice. I think that I ran into this before I bought the game and I wanted to get a sense of the community, then embarrassingly forgot this page existed.

[Bremspropeller]

I never stopped being clueless.

[PatrickAWlson]

15 hours ago, bongotastic said:

Makes sense. In addition to the defensive flying video above, I also found one on dealing with Flak. Putting it here in case someone else in my position runs into this thread. 

 

https://youtu.be/zUch1RM0oac 

 

 

A couple of ways to prioritize survival:

1. Do not chase across enemy lines.

2. If he drops to treetop and others are still around, let him go.

3. Choose to save your wingman over getting a kill.

4. Disengage if damaged, low ion ammo, or low on fuel.

5. Do not expend your last rounds over enemy territory.

6. Attack/bombing runs are one pass.

 

Do I actually follow these rules?  Mostly.  Not always, but I should.  Real world pilots also did not always follow them.  Some became heroes.  Many paid with their lives.  I have a restart button so that helps.

 

[elawsonjr30]

19 hours ago, Majpalmer said:

Ditto. The key to running up a score is to survive for more than one sortie. 

 

I started with the career mode. I quickly learned where I mostly died, and it wasn't from enemy action. I mostly killed myself. Landing accidents were #1. Collisions were #2. Third was flak. Fourth was enemy fire (almost always because I was careless and didn't check six and keep my SA high), Fifth was friendly fire. 

 

I worked on these issues, while still flying short-lived careers. After a while I managed to land without killing myself. Then, if I thought the chance of collision was high, I'd pass on the closing shots. I also learned to keep an eye on my Comrades who often collided with me. I avoided loitering over any place with AAA (and in a swirling fight that can be your own AAA!) and if I had to pass over such a position NEVER flew a straight line. I avoided target fixation. I stopped chasing wounded EAs deep into enemy territory. 

 

And then, I started focusing on my shooting. At first, I managed one kill every maybe 10 sorties. Then it was 6, 4, now it's about 3 (keeping in mind that I've flown several sorties where we never engage. 

 

Keep this in mind! Erich Hartmann, with 352 kills, averaged 1 kill every 4 sorties! So getting one kill every 4 sorties may seem like you stink, if you compare yourself to the true virtuosos in this community who have been flying for YEARS. But if you can survive for 1400 career sorties, you'll be another Hartmann. 

 

 

 

Landing was my #1 as well. I made a custom mission that starts with a plan in the air pointing towards a runway so I could practice over and over without having to take off and maneuver and such.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

I never stopped being clueless.

Says one of the few people here who actually know how aircraft work?

 

Anyway, my number 1 rule for surviving is Energy. Which is basically the sum of Potential and Kinetic energies. The idea is that you can convert between these energies more or less for free (there's a couple of caveats). You can gain speed by diving, and conversely you can gain altitude by climbing steeply (and hence lose speed). So if you have to make a steep turn to follow the enemy, rather than just do so without further ado and lose all your speed in the process, it's better to first climb until you've lost the same amount of speed you would've lost if you just started turning. Only then turn, and since you're already at the right velocity, you won't get any slower. Once your target ends the turn, you'll have the same velocity but will be quite a bit higher, which you can convert into speed to overtake him It takes a bit of getting used to, since you usually have to let your target get away from you a bit, in order to overtake and kill him later on. But it works.

 

It works for the enemy too though, so if there's any other plane of which the sum of speed and altitude is more than yours, your first priority should be to gain either altitude or speed until you're the one with the best energy balance again.

[bongotastic]

This thread is most useful for new players like me. There is a lot more depth to IL2 than I anticipated and this is awesome. I'm not yet at surviving dogfights as I can't aim very well. Right now, just trying to hit Stukas with novice pilots. For anyone new searching the forum in the future, don't waste ammo sniping from long range. This video is helpful building an instinct for shooting. 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by bongotastic

[Nihil_]

i'm not very good still, but i got more consistent doing what they said. get behind them at a faster speed, gives you some time to line up, take a shot and when you get too close disengage. don't try to match speeds just zip away and line up again. in my experience the AI flies a constant tight circle if you're trying to catch up some distance by keeping the inner circle when they turn. it's hard getting a good shot like that and it will bleed your speed if you try to follow, get on the outside of their turning circle (so you can see the bottom side of their plane) and often they level out and try some other tricks to shake you. i find it easier to line up a good shot like that. hope that made sense

[bongotastic]

Update: Playing a PWCG career, lost two pilots within 2 sorties, but now done my 6th with 3 kills (a 109, 111, 88) on lucky pilot #3. Survived a few furballs and most importantly, enjoying flying.

 

Likely to downgrade to clueless again soon when disabling nav markers and target enhancement. Bring it on.

 

 

On 6/17/2022 at 3:45 PM, Nihil_ said:

 don't try to match speeds just zip away and line up again.

 

The series on BFM by Requiem is excellent. After watching the "Introduction to geometry", I find it easy to snap into a bandit's 6 O'clock and stay there. That is, if they are 109s, slower planes are just too slow and you don't want to sit still in the sky like that, in their 6 on top of that. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by bongotastic

[twilson37]

I can say that I have only completed one career after countless attempts(I play on Iron Man mode so dead is dead).   I lost one of my more prolific careers while on  an escort mission I shot down an enemy fighter and his wheel came off and hit my prop, so I can't say I am an expert, but the one thing I will mention that helped me was patience and caution.  In ground attacks if the target is heavily defended with AAA drop your bombs and go home, if not take your time to line up attacks and pull out quicker than you think you should, you can always try again.  In Air to air combat learn the strengths of your airplane, watch youtube videos on that aircraft and what's its strengths and weaknesses are(Requiem and Sheriff both have excellent series).